Apology
by CrystalMaiden77
Summary: After losing all of his friends to a landslide, Miles realized that the Freedom Fighters would be the only people who could replace the void they left in him, whether they were heroes or not. This story mainly focuses on the sheer anxiety of him trying to make himself approach them in the first place. Extra story; Scourge kind of apologizing to Antoine when he was disguised.
1. Chapter 1

During one of the Suppression Squad's runs through their city asserting dominance in Moebius, they were on their way through a hill-filled field when a loud rumbling sound came from the highest part of the field, revealing a landslide of boulders tumbling towards them. Miles screamed and flew away terrified on an impulse as the rest of his gang ran for their lives in a panic, and before he knew it, their screams abruptly stopped. They had been buried under the boulders they were trying to avoid.

Horrified, Miles went into denial immediately and did everything he could to try to preserve their lives. Using his power over the wind, he pushed his hands forwards forcefully and sent blasts of gale force wind out of his palms that ended up sending the boulders flying, revealing his bruised and bleeding allies underneath them. They were lying on the ground with their eyes closed completely motionless, and he could barely stand to look at them in their conditions.

" NO! " Miles exclaimed, and ran towards them in a hurry, sensing a disturbing lack of electricity in them that would've normally indicated brain activity and functioning hearts. Checking their pulses one by one barely got him to accept what had happened, as he went into denial and convinced himself he wasn't doing it right for the moment. The one he was the most devastated about, the one he was the most desperate to save, was Alicia.

Running up to her as she laid face-down on the ground, he shouted, " Alicia! Ally! Ally! " turning her over on her back and trying to feel a heartbeat that wasn't there. " Wake up! " he exclaimed while trembling, and found himself sending electricity into her to force her heart and lungs to do their jobs as normal and return electric charges to her brain, something that, after a few minutes of doing, he realized was futile when he stopped and her vitals did not resume.

" No, no, no… " he said hysterically, shaking his head. Trying to force himself to speak in his more expected sophisticated way, he said, " Your head cannot be hurt _that_ much, s-s-top this foolishness! Wake up! Princess! Ally! Sweetheart! " He was kneeled in front of her, examining her badly bruised head and desperately trying to think of a way to return her to normal. He wished he had an Anarchy Beryl with him more than anything at the moment. For all he knew, it could've saved them.

He jumped startled upon seeing a hand weakly twitch in the corner of his eye and said, " Patch?! " looking over at Antoine's evil twin terrified for him. Patch groaned miserably and nearly whispered, " I can barely move… My back… my head… What am I seeing? " Upon Miles turning him over on his back in a panic, he held back the urge to scream in agony when Miles said, " Hold on, " and cauterized the bleeding wounds on his sides and head with his heat powers, explaining, " Don't worry, I'll stop the bleeding and make it all better. I'm sorry it has to hurt so much, but it's for your own good. " Patch grimaced clenching his fists, and said in a weary but shaky voice, " Just let me die… "

Miles gasped, and said with a serious expression, " No! Don't ever say that again! What the hell kind of friend would I be if I did that? I'm here for you. I'm taking you to the hospital and forcing them to take care of you. You are not dying as long as I can help it! That's final! " He froze the air just surrounding him and the ground beneath him to create a makeshift stretcher for Patch made of ice strapping him inside it, and levitated it with a tornado from beneath after creating one below himself, reassuring him as he started shivering miserably,

" It'll be okay. T-They'll be fine, I'll come back for them. I've been keeping their vitals going with my electricity and I'll continue to do that until they wake up, damn it. In the meantime, you're going to the hospital. Try not to go to sleep in case you have a concussion, " trying to ignore the fact that he already seemed to be unconscious.

With that, he used his powers to fly him and Patch to the hospital in the city nearby. Unfortunately for his already fragile emotional state, while he succeeded in getting Patch to the emergency room, it failed to change his fate in the end. With cracked ribs, an injured back, a broken arm and a concussion, Patch remained unconscious for the rest of the day, showing no signs of waking up with his vitals decreasing and fluctuating until finally, as a nurse had to break it to Miles, Patch flat-lined late in the night.

The second he heard that, he gave up all hope and realized that the Suppression Squad as he knew them were gone forever. Letting go of the denial, he went home as fast as he could in a forced rage to cover up his heartbreak, flying through the stormy skies on a tornado not caring about the rain hitting his face, and collapsed into his bed not caring about feeding himself first and broke down crying until midnight came, letting it all sink in.

Shaking from fear and a low temperature, Miles was overwhelmed with the feeling of isolation and loss, thinking that it wasn't fair, blaming himself, and later on, thinking that he should've expected to have lost them when he was lucky a mutant like him even had people willing to give him a chance, that it was only a matter of time before he was forced to be alone once more.

Vividly having flashbacks multiple times in a row to all the times he was a three-to-four-year-old boy miserably longing for friends, he eventually became fed up, and refused to let the rest of his life be that way.

After some brief consideration, he determined that the best way to fill the void the Suppression Squad left in him, would be to replace them with the closest approximation to them he had, the Freedom Fighters. They were their counterparts, after all, and as their good, more caring twins, they should logically be even more likely to warm up to him and care about him.

But it couldn't be that simple. While they did claim to be heroes who helped people, he was still just a criminal to them. How long would he have to deal with being treated with disapproval, being an outcast in his own home? It would be like being back at the orphanage all over again, surrounded by people he wanted to like him who didn't.

Anti-Tails was faced with the fact that he'd have to become a hero for the rest of his life if he were to successfully earn the Freedom Fighters' friendship and keep it, and as a result of him already being miserable to begin with, this led him into a long, depressing, self-loathing train of thought full of introspection about whether or not he was satisfied with his life as a criminal.

No longer having friends around to peer pressure him, it finally dawned on Miles that for the first time in his life, he had the freedom to actually choose the path he would take in it. Before that point, he had always felt forced into doing the things he did from circumstance. He was forced to steal to stay alive on an island where no one valued his life, and was being forced to do evil deeds to keep the favor of his only allies. He always had a delusion or excuse to justify his actions, one that worked even when he felt that revenge against humanity wasn't enough of a good reason. He was a criminal to either stay alive or keep his friends and a life worth living as a result of them.

He hated Moebius for being full of people who were cruel and prejudiced to him, and the brief time he spent on Mobius never had him experience any prejudice, but he could never have chosen to come live there permanently and reap the benefits of a world with more accepting people because his allies were all Moebians, who would've just wanted him to commit crimes that would make the Mobians hate him regardless. He could never gain what he truly desired, and had to deal with the cons of his place in life in order to keep the benefits it gave him. He repressed the guilt and ignored how disturbing it was carrying out his orders, and pretended he was enjoying himself even more than everyone else was, but deep down, he was conflicted every single day, frustrated with how he wasn't nearly as satisfied with his lashing out as he wanted to be. But rather than being honest about that and opening himself up to scolding, persuasion and even rejection, he kept silent to keep the respect of his peers.

But now he was alone, with no one there to pressure him. He was independent and free. He could very well stay in Moebius, take advantage of the fact that he was made the heir to Alicia's throne, and live a lonely miserable existence as a petty and vengeful king. But that choice would make everything he would do afterwards entirely his fault. He would only end up being embarrassed and frustrated with himself for wasting his time lashing out at the world when he didn't actually want to. He knew he was already breaking down from his loss; the full burden of guilt crashing down on him with no mercy would destroy him.

Thinking back to the landslide that claimed the lives of his allies forced him to think about the fact that he could've died with the rest of them that day. His life would've ended there, and no one would've missed him. His life had flashed before his eyes as he flew away from those falling boulders, and it forced him to focus on the fact that he wasn't happy with how he had lived his life. He wasn't happy with how his life had turned out and the legacy he had made for himself. Life was too short for wasting on what he had done.

Miles thought sadly, " _For the first time in my life… I have the freedom to choose what to do with it… and now that I have that choice… I want to make the right decision… I want to do the right thing._ " His eyes widened in realization when he finished that thought, unable to believe it when he finally admitted it to himself and realized the implications. Was he truly happy with the legacy he made for himself? While it sounded like an excellent idea terrorizing his dimension because he viewed it as giving bullies who discriminated against him for his second tail what they deserved, ultimately he was only lashing out at people because of a lack of a proper outlet for his anger, and the nagging feeling of guilt that came from trampling on people weaker than himself with the help of the Suppression Squad offset the small satisfaction that came from it.

Revenge didn't get people to stop discriminating against him, it only made it worse and made him even more unhappy with himself. There was always a little nagging voice in his head criticizing his every mistake and flaw and saying that he himself was a bully, often taking on the voice of one of the many bullies he had suffered from in life who always said everything he suffered from was his fault. That was every day of his life, and it was as if the people of his island would always continue to haunt him, even long after Scourge had them all destroyed for what they did to his little brother figure in the past. He wondered if that nagging feeling, his insecurity and self-loathing drilled into him from birth, would at least be lessened if he made more of an effort to do the right thing, for more than just the few who weren't his enemies. If he was a productive person, instead of a detrimental one. " _I've been worse than useless…_ " he thought sadly, wiping his tears away full of bitter hatred for himself.

He wondered if he would be more content in the long-term using his abilities to be productive to the world he lived in, and the idea of being productive on Mobius, a world that might actually _deserve_ his help, sounded strangely appealing, particularly when he thought about how he never held back using his powers to destroy robots. Kintobor's robots never truly did anything wrong, so destroying them felt pathetic, and frustrating, and " surreal, " in a way that he finally accepted meant that it felt wrong. It was thoroughly unsatisfying. He verbally expressed it as them not being a challenge to his criminal friends, who he always had to talk up his evilness to for the sake of getting them to respect him more, but he knew there was something missing that had nothing to do with that.

Destroying harmless street-cleaning robots felt like a petty waste of his time. Destroying the dangerous robots of Eggman would be the most satisfying use of his abilities that he would ever have, making himself look more powerful than ever before on Mobius while being completely in the right. It would be perfect, the ideal way to deal with his stress and to make use of his abilities and live his life.

Destroying Eggman's robots with the Freedom Fighters would be the most satisfying way to get out his anger and relieve his stress, all while feeling completely in the right. He could easily imagine Sonic supporting him on that, aside from perhaps complaining about him not leaving any robots for him to fight and stealing his thunder. He might still have to hold back against robots if that were the case even for Scourge's noble twin.

In fact, the more Miles thought about the idea of becoming allied with Sonic permanently, the more fond of the idea he became. " _We seem to work surprisingly well together,_ " he remembered himself saying to Sonic on his previous encounter with him on Mobius, trying to look casual and relaxed at saying something so gutsy and forward to him. " _You could say that,_ " Sonic had replied to him, so casually that he didn't even turn to look at him or stop smirking from landing his previous attack. He hadn't exactly shown any objection to it. That was before he threw Sonic with Scourge into a portal on Boomer's order and betrayed him. " _Bon voyage, hedgehogs!_ " he remembered saying later, letting himself think that Sonic was just as bad as Scourge to enjoy himself in the moment that he ended up looking back at with regret.

Still trying to wipe away his tears as they kept coming out without stopping, he thought, " _Sonic… Will he ever forgive me?_ " That stunned him into a clear mind for a couple seconds when it dawned on him the double meaning of that sentence. " _Sonic…_ " Which one was he trying to refer to?

Much to his embarrassment, thinking of Sonic always led to him thinking of Scourge, and in desperate times, when he was full of anxiety and uncertainty, Miles always found himself thinking back to Scourge when he was his only friend and instinctively turning to that old version of him for advice, remembering how friendly he was to him back then with a nostalgic fondness and attachment. Conflicted more than ever before from anxiety over trying to carry out what he was planning, with no one left to turn to, it was only inevitable that he would start doing that at that desperate moment. " _Damn it. What would Sonic say?_ " Miles thought, calling Scourge by the name he always knew him as in childhood out of habit.

He remembered what Scourge said to him as advice on how to live his life, vividly remembering a blue hedgehog with shades and a leather jacket smiling at him when he was a very young child. Wearing a leather jacket himself as well as dark sunglasses, his younger self asked Scourge twiddling his thumbs and looking down, " _Bro, um, you know how you're the one raising me right? And, um, usually people who do that give valuable life advice on how to live life. W-What would you give me, for, uh, life advice?_ " still being timid and awkward around his friend. Scourge grinned in amusement commenting, " _Never been asked that before,_ " and then after a brief moment of consideration, he smirked confidently while saying eagerly, " _Live life to the fullest! "_

Miles remembered that he had asked Scourge in his youthful ignorance, " _Uh, fullest?_ " not understanding what he meant. He was often embarrassed when remembering when he was that young, and one of the reasons was his lack of education showing through; with his limited knowledge of common phrases, words and social customs, it was clear that he had never gone to school, and Scourge usually looked like the wiser one in comparison. Scourge lightheartedly teased him, " _You know!_ " finding his ignorance cute. He chuckled and ruffled his hair before elaborating, _" Enjoy life! It's as simple as that. Do what you want, and don't let anybody get in your way! If it makes ya happy, then do it!_ "

Miles reflected on that, uncertain for what was hardly the only time in response to it, as he often wondered how he was to follow that advice and do what made him happy when he wasn't sure what could make him truly happy to begin with. He usually just did what he was told; happiness was not the priority, loyalty was, because loyalty was necessary to avoid losing his happiness. If he didn't stay loyal, he'd lose his friends and everything enjoyable about life. So in order to keep that from happening, he promised himself that if he ever got friends, he'd do whatever they said, therefore following a strict moral code of his own devising that was more important to him than anything. The hedonism Scourge encouraged was a childish mistake.

That was what separated him from Scourge. He valued his friends more than anything else, to the point of doing things he didn't always feel right about just for them. Unlike Scourge, he lived his life according to rules, because he feared the consequences of breaking them, which would be losing everything he loved. Scourge broke the rule of mistreating his friends and ended up losing their respect and appreciation, and in the end, he even suffered through imprisonment for it. During his train of thought about the likelihood of him becoming a hero, Miles was unable to ignore the implication that him being rule-abiding to that extent, might prove that being honorable and noble was in his very nature when he followed a moral code of his own even in spite of the influence of his criminal friends. The fact that he had never ended anyone's life even when he believed they deserved it only proved it even more.

Scourge on the other hand, only cared about making himself happy, whether it was at the expense of others or not, and Miles didn't want to be like that, but he still wanted a happy life, even if he believed it required doing things he didn't want to in order to obtain and maintain it. In the middle of his grief-stricken breakdown, he had to ask himself a pertinent question. Was being evil lashing out at society giving him a happy life? He only remembered himself being frustrated during those deeds, never actually feeling better. While he respected Scourge and his life advice at first, he was confused at it from the fact that he wasn't sure what he could to do to make himself happy, other than making his friends happy enough to like him. He soon learned in life that he needed to be more in touch with what made him truly happy to understand how to properly follow his brother's advice.

Miles always defined the most reliable means of obtaining happiness as spending quality time with the people who cared about him and reminding himself that they did, so seeking out a new friendship would be the best possible choice of action following that advice. He still had his issues with Scourge for neglecting him later in life, but he had to admit he admired how he could enjoy life, unburdened by such issues as scary and upsetting memories and dissatisfaction with how life was not how he wanted it.

The only way he could think of to follow that advice to pursue happiness, was to apologize to the Freedom Fighters in order to seek out a friendship with them. It would be extremely difficult making himself go through with it, but in the long-term, it could be the first decision he ever made that would give him a genuinely happy life. It was just like Scourge always said, " _You deserve to live like a king! Do whatever ya can to get yourself the good life!_ " He couldn't help but see the irony in how following the advice of Sonic's evil twin could lead to him becoming a hero instead. He could end up becoming one of the closest friends of Scourge's most hated enemy, and all from earnestly following his advice.

Having made his decision and unable to bear remaining in his own dimension any longer, Miles threw off his sheets, jumped out of bed, fled to Boomer's lab as fast as he could and got a hold of the fully functional teleporter Boomer had made for their planned attack on Mobius.

Picking it up and warping there with a flash of green light, he escaped to Mobius with tears still running down his face, and the minute he arrived in a damp cave there in a flash of light, he threw the teleporter to the rocky ground and made throwing motions with his arms flinging lightning bolts at it, grunting and shouting in a fit of a rage against the loss he experienced and the misery his old dimension had caused him. All of those overwhelming emotions came out of him at once and he expressed it in the safest way he knew how. " I'm never coming back! Ever! Again! " Miles exclaimed furiously incinerating the device, as the once clear sky above him became obscured by black rainclouds that proceeded to send torrential rains out of them with rapid thunder and lightning.

After standing over the completely incinerated ashes of where his teleporter used to be panting in exhaustion, Miles caught his breath at last, was frustrated with himself for accidentally summoning a freezing storm for himself from his emotional turmoil, tried and failed to get rid of it because he wasn't in the right emotional state for stopping storms, and stormed out of the cave not even being sure which direction he needed to head in.

He immediately had to force himself to deal with being soaking wet from freezing rain and wind that motivated him to move as fast as he could to the limestone cave that Freedom Fighters HQ was built into. However, his preferred method of flying wasn't ideal in the pouring rain where moving that fast would only make the freezing rain and wind fly in his face much faster, making him unable to see and even colder than before. So with great reluctance, he set about flying in the way he usually had to in the worst of storms.

He jumped in the air hovering over the ground with his spinning tails above him and quickly moved his arms around in a circle to summon a tornado below him to catch and hold him above it, but only temporarily that time, considering the method of flight he'd have to contend with. By shaking his bent-upwards fingers as they were raised slightly above his head, he turned down the temperature of the air around him to freeze its water vapor solid, creating a sphere of ice around him that had a hole in the bottom for him to look through from above as he reluctantly flew with his tails despite the pain, blasting wind behind the ice sphere surrounding him to thrust him forwards four times as fast as before.

He wanted to get out of the rain and get the apologizing over with as fast as possible. His nerves were already shot from having just witnessed the death of all of his friends, and the more time he spent flying to Freedom Fighters HQ in a dark and stormy night, the more nervous he became about approaching the people he had wronged so much in the past, and in an effort to subtly become a permanent ally. He knew he wouldn't receive a warm welcome, and wasn't sure that he would be able to handle it. All he was going to do was give a quick apology and ask to stay with them " for a little while, " assisting them, but even that was nerve-wracking.

A nervous wreck by that point, he was overwhelmed with stress as he couldn't help coming up with the worst case scenarios for how they would react to his presence in the worst possible ways, imagining them shouting at him and attacking him and even tying him up and imprisoning him and calling the international police, all without ever listening to him, or calling him a liar. He was petrified, terrified that even though making himself ask them to let him stay with them and expressing regret for how he treated them in the past would be very difficult for him, it was possible the Freedom Fighters would not appreciate how hard it would be for him and only call him a manipulating liar. The best he could hope for was that he would break down crying in front of them and get their sympathy from that rather than being called manipulating even more, but he was dreading humiliating himself like that, and it only made him feel worse.

By the time he got to their front door, he was trembling, both from the freezing cold rain and wind he had to deal with before he had started flying, and from being completely frightened and hysterical. Shaking his hands to melt the ice sphere surrounding him and free himself, he landed on his feet in front of the locked door, thankful that no one else was watching him. To make sure they wouldn't think he was an enemy the instant they saw him, he moved the flip-switch on each of his spiked bracelets to make the spikes fold harmlessly into them, didn't try to fake an annoyed or dignified expression to look normal when that would only make him look hateful, and took a deep if shaky breath to attempt to steady his nerves before timidly knocking on the door very lightly three times in a row.

The wait that came afterwards was nerve-wracking, as he dreaded the salt in the wound that would be Sally's familiar judgmental glare the minute she'd see him again. He forced tears back by blinking irregularly and trying to clear his mind, not wanting to be humiliated the minute they saw him again. But after an entire minute had passed with him fidgeting and looking around nervously before he finally realized how much time had passed, it dawned on him that it was too late at night for him to get any kind of response from them. It was past midnight when he finally went to Mobius. " _I've wasted most of the night crying like a weak-minded fool…_ " he thought with downcast eyes, his head hung low. He was so ashamed.

He considered ringing the doorbell, but immediately decided against it pulling his hand back like he was about to touch a hot stove, horrified at the prospect that waking everyone up with that would only put them in a very unforgiving mood with him and refuse to listen to what he said. " Of course, " he bitterly muttered to himself, silently facepalming and shaking his head at himself. At first, he instinctively thought about breaking into the house from opening or damaging the window and sleeping in the basement, as he had done as a homeless three-year-old hundreds of times before, but he soon came to his senses upon remembering exactly where he was. Breaking into a house to get a warm place to sleep wasn't an option for him, because that would only land him in hot water with the Freedom Fighters and the police if he was discovered. " No, no… I can't… " he said quietly with his eyes closed, with a sinking feeling losing all hope, holding his head with both hands as it started to ache.

If he was to make a good impression on the heroes the minute they found him in their world, he couldn't do anything to implicate himself. He couldn't commit any crime and then expect them to trust him. It was horrifying for him. He was stuck in the worst possible situation. He was homeless, but unlike on his old island, he didn't have the option of breaking into a house for a warm place to sleep. For at least one night, he was in a worse situation than he had been as " the island mutant, " and that terrified him. He was lucky it wasn't the winter.

Frustrated with himself for not being rational enough to realize he would've wasted his time, and getting irrationally worried that he might never find the Freedom Fighters before _they_ found _him_ and jumped to conclusions, tears welled up in his eyes again obscuring his vision. He jumped into the air spinning his tails behind him like a propellor and flew away as fast as he possibly could forcing himself to look enraged to try and hide it. The cold wind and rain stung as it was sent towards his face and body much faster than normal as he was propelled forwards in the stormy sky by wind blasting out of his palms behind him, but he was so overwhelmed by his thoughts and anxieties that he didn't care. " _Who cares if I freeze now?!_ " he thought in frustration and sadness, hating his situation and himself.

Landing on his feet in front of the cave several minutes later, he ran inside the cave taking shelter from the storm and sat down in exhaustion, shivering uncontrollably with his bottom lip quivering blinded by the tears. Accepting his situation, Miles slowly laid down on the cold hard rocky floor, breaking down sobbing on his side with his eyes squeezed shut and his tails wrapping around himself for warmth, longing for a comforting embrace that would never come. With his arms around his chest shivering on the ground to try to emulate such an embrace, exhaling in short sharp breaths and then gasping every so often to breathe in the thick moist air of the cave that only made him feel worse, everything about his experience was directly reminding him of when he was a very young child, forced to sleep in cold caves with no proper home for himself on an island full of people who demonized him from birth. " _It's not fair…_ " he thought, not bothering to speak out loud when his voice would only come out as a pathetic whimper and make him feel even worse.

Miles spent the rest of the night tossing and turning on the cave floor, lost in memories of the past and fearing the future. He wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to take it. With the fear that it was all hopeless buzzing around in his head, he wondered if keeping himself alive at that point was even worth it. He felt overwhelmed, trapped, and helpless.

When morning finally arrived, he realized to his dismay that he hadn't slept at all, and with his eyelids feeling heavy and his eyes still watering, he reminded himself of what he couldn't put off doing. He had to force himself to push himself up off the rocky floor, stand up feeling unsteady and disoriented, and slowly walk to the Freedom Fighters' base in the freezing rain, too exhausted to fly there and get there faster.

The bottoms of his boots were soaked through the soles at that point, and his gloves were dripping wet above his bracelets, sticking to his hands more tightly in the process. As he passed by puddles on the ground during his walk, seeing his muddy reflection in them only made him feel even worse, as all he could see in them was a freak, a two-tailed abomination of nature, and if that wasn't bad enough, one who used to be a criminal at that, a villain. If one aspect of himself wouldn't get him discriminated against, he was certain that the other one would. Would his situation improve at all? He eventually started trying to ignore the puddles entirely, hoping he wouldn't break down crying out in the open during the day, even if there was no chance of anyone seeing him in the wilderness.

When he finally reached the door to the base again, there was no one there to answer the door, and when he made it all the way to Sally's castle, tears running down his face by that point, he couldn't bring himself to ring the doorbell, knowing there might be a panic caused if the wrong person answered the door. This was enough to break his resolve, and he ran back to his cave with tears in his eyes losing all hope and courage.

He was terrified that if he did get allowed to stay with them, he would be ostracized by the Freedom Fighters for the rest of his life at best, or rejected by them outright at worst. He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life miserable and alone, doing nothing but crying in a cave in between somehow finding meals for himself. After waiting for one of the Freedom Fighters to come to him through a miracle, he eventually started to give up.

" Well, it looks like you're fully healed, " Tails said to Miles after a week, examining where the gash in his tail used to be. He threw away the last of the bandages on him as Miles tried and failed to hide how depressed he felt from knowing that he was expected to leave. Noticing how he was feeling, Tails smiled nervously as Sonic looked at him with concern, and said awkwardly, " I don't blame you if you don't wanna tell me where you're gonna go now, since we were enemies for most of our lives. I don't know how I could even get the information out of you anyways. I-I just want you to know that, I'm here for you. I-I understand you a lot better now, I've gotten to know you better – both of us have – so, um, if you're ever hurt again, you can come to me. "

Miles felt his eyes start welling up with tears and smiled at hearing that. It felt so good knowing that he had only been with him for a week and already he had his forgiveness. " Thank you, " he almost whispered, with a voice full of appreciation. He had to force himself to not give the game away right away and ask if he could stay with them forever, because he didn't want to push his luck, and he wanted his apology to all of the Freedom Fighters to be a pleasant surprise. He let a sad sigh escape him as he walked out the door, leaving Sonic and Tails' house as freezing rain started falling from the sky once again.

As soon as he left, he spun his tails behind him like a propellor bursting forwards from a gale force wind, jumped into the air as he hovered forwards and kept that momentum going as he moved his arm in a circle, creating an uplift of air below him raising him up into the sky. With that, he flew high up into the sky, still moving just as fast as he was when he was running on the ground, and focused his sights on the ground below in an effort to find his next destination. Annoyed at how far away from him the ground was, Miles squinted in an attempt to make sense of the blurry mass of shapes below him, cursing his increasingly nearsighted vision. He had always had that difficulty, at least ever since he was four years old when he got pepper-sprayed in the eyes by a woman whose home he had broken into for food.

It must have taken over an hour for him to finally reach the place where the Freedom Fighters spent most of their time, but he wasn't keeping track of the time, miserable and shivering with his entire body and the clothes on his back dripping wet sticking to him. Eventually, when he knew he was only a straight line away from his destination, he landed on the ground and started walking to save energy, with his head hung low the whole time looking down away from the rain above him. He barely stopped himself in his tracks in time to not walk right into the door of the base, and internally put himself down for that absent-minded mistake, thinking bitterly, " _Miles, you idiot…_ " to himself as he shook his head with his hand on it.

This only distracted him briefly from his emotional turmoil, and after looking back up at the door nervously, his pupils shrunk as he looked horrified, and he took a deep breath preparing himself trying to be brave. He had to force himself to once again timidly knock on the door in front of him, hoping that knocking as lightly as he could with his shaking hand would somehow make the Freedom Fighters less suspicious of him upon seeing it was him. He was hoping against hope with all of his heart that things wouldn't turn out badly for him, and felt a horrible amount of pressure to do everything right, because he couldn't afford a single mistake. He was on thin ice, and the wrong move would cause it to crack open beneath him.

When the door opened in front of him at last, he had to force himself not to yelp startled and instinctively run away, with his jumping at the door opening being his only reaction. It was Sally who opened the door, and she gasped shocked at seeing him immediately, her eyes widening and stepping back a little instinctively. Her facial expression quickly became one that distrusted him and took him seriously as a threat, just like he had worried, but her eyes were shrunken in surprise and worry. Terrified that she'd attack him, Miles knew he would have the best first impression as a potential ally if he made sure that an apology was the first words out of his mouth, and without even the slightest delay.

" I'm _SORRY_ about earlier! I-I-I'm not here to _fight_ you! Can we, can we talk?! " Miles forced the words out as quick as he could to try to get her to relax, stuttering while shivering from the freezing cold rain he had to deal with on the way there. Apologizing to her even in that short minimalistic way made him feel very self-conscious and uncomfortable, and he was hoping she wouldn't just dismiss his apology as a lie just because he was trying to placate her and the Freedom Fighters with it. He wondered if he would end up breaking down crying if after all the effort he put into making himself apologize, they treated him like that.

" _He looks awful…_ " Sally thought upon examining the evil fox, in spite of her distrust of him. The spikes on Anti-Tails' bracelets weren't jutting out as before, and she realized that he had retracted them into narrow folds in them, presumably to appear harmless. His expression was sad and frightened, he was shaking, and he was soaking wet from head to toe, to the point of his normally neat dark gray streak of hair being messy and drooping in front of his face. There were stress lines under his eyes, and his eyes were a bit bloodshot and red with streams of water directly below them that were stained into his white muzzle, which almost looked like tear stains compared to the water droplets on the rest of him. In that vulnerable humble position where he looked as if he was about to cry, he reminded her of Tails. His trademark condescending or bitter expression was gone, and he looked like a completely different person.

In the second and a half of anxiety-inducing silence where Sally reacted to his presence with surprise, Miles couldn't stand the feeling of being judged, and worried irrationally that him being wet would discourage her from letting him inside because he would track water into the base, frustrated with himself for not thinking of that and having no way to dry off first. He was starting to feel like the situation was hopeless, and felt a panic attack coming on that he actively resisted expressing openly.

" Miles! " Sally exclaimed with a scared expression that made him dread a lack of trust coming his way. " How long were you out in the rain?! " she said, revealing that she was worried about his well-being. Stunned at her concern, Miles stammered, and took a few seconds before saying uncertainly, " Hours? I, I don't know. I, wasn't keeping track of the, passage of time… " adding in his thoughts that he never really could. He thought, " _Why'd she ask that? Is she worried about me? Already?! I… I shouldn't be surprised, she's Alicia's ' good twin, ' but, this must be too good to be true…_ "

While he was lost in thought, he failed to notice Sally turning to Sonic on the living room couch behind her and ordering him, " Get him a towel and blankets! He's freezing! " and Sonic running out of the room in a blue blur and immediately going back to it holding some blankets and a red towel in front of him. Sally then turned back to Miles and told him, " Okay, come inside first, we can talk on the couch, " snapping him out of his train of thought.

He jumped a little from her intimidating him unintentionally with her commanding tone and distrusting facial expression, and was embarrassed with himself for looking like such a coward. It was clear that Sally was speaking to a child that she viewed as a troublemaker, a juvenile delinquent who couldn't be trusted, and it felt both condescending and anxiety-inducing at the same time. He was still in trouble for the way he always acted in the past, but at the very least, he was being shown compassion instead of immediately being rejected. His head hung low, he reluctantly forced himself to follow her, being so irrational at the moment that it didn't occur to him that her irritated disposition, much like with Alicia, was being used as a cover for her concern for him.

Sonic dried him off and then wrapped the towel around him the minute he walked into the base, and then covered him over with the blankets after he sat down on the comfortable couch, and the familiar experience of a blue hedgehog drying him off and giving him blankets while looking concerned for his well-being warmed his heart from nostalgia for a friendship long gone. He was ashamed, and frustrated with himself for how he still missed Scourge, and how close his friendship with him was when they only had each other, and how he was so stuck in the past that seeing Sonic always directly reminded him of Scourge. All he needed was shades and a leather jacket, and he'd be perfect, if not even better, because _he_ wouldn't waste all his time committing crimes and chasing girls. He'd be the brother he always wanted.

" T-Thank you, " Miles finally responded in a hushed quiet voice, after being silent for a few seconds stunned at the sudden compassion. He quickly looked around the living room taking in the sights at last, finally realizing that aside from Antoine and Amy, all of the Freedom Fighters had happened to be in the room upon his arrival, including Tails, the one he had treated the worst. And yet, no one seemed to be glaring at him. He could certainly recognize fear in them, but the way they were looking at him, they seemed to be more concerned for his well-being and curious about what he intended to say. This was too convenient. It had to be.

Sally sat beside him looking nervous, with Sonic on the other side unintentionally comforting him with his mere presence, and said, " You're welcome, Miles. It was nice of you to apologize, " appearing annoyed and reluctant to speak with him, before questioning him, " So why aren't you with the others? Where's the Suppression Squad? " Hearing that question only brought back old emotions in him and made tears well up in his eyes, reminding him directly of the void they had all left in him with their deaths. He remembered vividly the gruesome image of them being crushed under the falling rocks, and could barely answer her question, fearing the possibility that she wouldn't believe what he would say or even accuse him of being the one responsible. " They… " he whispered, looking devastated with his head down as his voice became choked up.

" Anti-Tails?! " Amy exclaimed all of a sudden upon entering the room, startling Miles off the couch and getting everyone's attention in an instant. Believing that he was misleading everyone, she impulsively screamed and smacked him in the side with her hammer before anyone could stop her, sending him flying and landing on the floor painfully. " Amy, what is wrong with you?! " Sally yelled at her right away, which failed to reassure Miles, as he was too focused on what just happened to care. His worst fear had been realized; one of the Freedom Fighters had attacked him just for showing up, without even letting him talk first. How long would it be before the rest of them turned on him?

" I knew it! I knew it! Why did I trust you?! Wh-Wh-Why did I think you'd all give me a chance? " he exclaimed with a choked up voice, humiliated by the tears escaping his eyes at last. As Sonic and Tails rushed to his side and lifted him up to a standing position reassuring him, " It's okay, " and helping him back to the couch, he couldn't help but think about how he'd feel if the rest of them attacked him like that, vividly imagining them beating him up for revenge.

" Calm down! " Rotor said to him worried, followed by Bunnie telling him, " That was just Amy! " and Nicole reassuring him in a kind tone, " None of us are going to hurt you! " Tails then told him unhappily, " Exactly! As long as you don't hurt us, " smiling nervously at the end as his show of compassion finally snapped Miles out of it.

Meanwhile, Sally was scolding Amy for her impulsive act of violence with her hands on her hips. " He was on the couch with blankets over him, for Pete's sake, have some compassion! You're too violent for negotiations. " Amy exclaimed sadly, " I'm sorry! I just saw Tails' evil twin and thought he was misleading you or something!... I didn't think it would make him like _that!_ " looking really remorseful and uncomfortable by the end of it.

Hearing that even Rosy the Rascal's counterpart was showing compassion for him stunned Miles into silence once again, and he frantically wiped away his tears humiliated on the couch, sniffling with Sonic and Nicole on either side of him reassuring him with comforting gestures. A towel was wrapped around him once again with the blankets being over top of it, both of which were doing a splendid job of warming him up.

" It's okay, relax! " Sonic said in concern, rubbing his shoulder beneath the blankets, with Nicole shushing him and stroking his head to calm him down. Unfortunately, Sally had to ask him again, " S-So where's the Suppression Squad? " Feeling very pressured to answer to avoid getting in trouble, he forced himself to reveal the answer, with the words directly reminding him of what happened and taunting him in the process. " They're dead! I couldn't save them! " Miles exclaimed with a choked up voice, with his shaking from the sheer terror being combined with his shivering from the cold.

Everyone around him looked stunned and horrified from the revelation, and Miles, terrified that they might accuse him of doing them in, forced himself to try to elaborate the best that he could when doing so only filled his mind's eye with scary memories. " It all happened so fast! The boulders came falling and I-I-I, I couldn't save them! I saw it happen! I saw… " Miles said in a panic, with his pupils shrunken and appearing to be staring at something far off in the distance that no one could see.

Ashamed, he covered his face with his hands to try to give himself a little dignity as he hid the tears from everyone too late for it to work, upset at how his gloves were so wet from the rain that they completely failed to dry his face successfully. He couldn't take them off to dry his eyes when that would only reveal his scars. His tails beneath the towel and blankets were wrapping around his knees and back as he sat with his knees drawn up in front of him, desperately trying to comfort himself and hide his expression. He wished more than anything that someone would just hug him already, and a part of him hated them for not doing exactly that. It didn't feel fair, even though he knew he used to be their enemy and had no right to feel entitled to such a thing. He felt both victimized and disgusted with himself for feeling that way.

" It's okay! You're safe here… " Sally reassured him after several seconds of being silent in shock, not sure how to respond. Bunnie said sadly, " That's awful… " which was what Sally had considered saying and decided against because she thought that kind of response would only upset Miles even more. " A landslide? That's what happened? " Nicole asked him sadly, with her hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

No one failed to realize how strange and risky it was to be giving those comforting gestures to Tails' evil twin, when for all they knew he might attack them for it, but they were too overwhelmed by the situation for that to keep them from showing him compassion. Miles nodded, his eyes closed and his knees drawn up with his head hung low hidden behind them. Humiliated didn't even begin to describe how he was feeling at the moment, and the only thing comforting him was the idea that their pity might be the only thing making them sympathize with him and listen.

" You really cared about them… " Sally said in realization, saying what everyone else was thinking. They were shocked that Tails' evil twin actually cared about someone other than himself, to the point of having a minor breakdown at losing them, and wondered if he had always been that way or had changed. When he nodded reluctantly in response to Sally, Nicole stated, " He hasn't lied once since his arrival! Even when he apologized! He's telling the truth about everything, " taking advantage of her convenient ability to be a living lie detector to help his case. This reminded Miles of that ability of hers, and he was caught between dreading dealing with it and knowing he should appreciate how she'd prove his truthfulness when it counted.

" He's heartbroken. He's not faking any of this… " Nicole added sadly. " No kidding. I've _never_ seen him _cry_ before! Poor kid. You can't fake a reaction like that, " Amy replied unhappily, getting another brief scolding look from Sally as a result. " What? " she asked in confusion, not realizing that she might have come off as rude.

" Could I stay with you for a while? " Miles forced out at last, saying what he had planned to say from the very beginning while terrified of being told no. After a brief awkward second-long-silence where the Freedom Fighters reacted to it stunned and Miles tried to get his courage to speak back, he blurted out, " I have nowhere else to go! I'm stranded on Mobius and no one wants me home! I _can't_ go back to being alone! "

He looked terrified at possibly giving his plan away and stammered nervously with a fake smile, " I-I-I mean, not right away, I mean. It's no big deal, I just, need to stay here for a little while u-until I get over it. " His facial expression became more earnest and serious as he said passionately, " I'll do anything you want to pull my weight while I'm here! I'll follow any order you give to me. I'll do whatever you want! I'll be happy to fight that ' Eggman ' with you!... Please?... "

Another brief silence followed, and Miles kept his eyes squeezed shut drying his tears to avoid seeing everyone's reactions, worried frantically at how Nicole was clearly able to tell when he was lying. He considered trying to tell them about the weather powers he had discovered since their last encounter as a way to persuade them into believing he'd be useful, but decided against it because they might not believe him, or only fear him for it at worst. Showing them would only startle them into attacking him at seeing him summon electricity from his hands and instinctively think he was threatening them, or at least it'd get that response from Amy anyways. Once again, he felt trapped, completely at the mercy of the cruel whims of fate.

" Miles, the weather's awful out and you have no one else to turn to, _of course_ you can stay! As long as you agree to be under _constant_ supervision, and obviously not break the law. " Sally said outstretching her hand at the end, being compassionate at first and serious and wary by the end.

" Deal! I swear on my life, " Miles said to her shaking her hand, taking it very seriously while still being on edge. He was ashamed of how much he was appreciating simply holding someone's hand, and forced himself to let go. Sally noticed that, just like the last time she shook his hand, his grip was gentle rather than firm, as if he was using it as an excuse to hold someone's hand. He didn't squeeze the hand at all, and she was doing the majority of the shaking. She supposed she should've taken that kind of " wimpy " handshake as a sign that he wasn't that bad, that at the very least he wasn't the type to assert dominance and control over someone at the slightest of opportunities and cared more about feeling loved.

" I'll be sure to keep Nicole around you at all times to make sure you'll always be telling the truth. Not that I don't trust you not to try anything right now. I just want to be sure, " Sally stated seriously, being a bit nervous at the end. She still didn't entirely trust him not to give in to his old evil ways, and Nicole could tell how shaky things were for him and decided not to risk anything for him by revealing that he was lying about his stay being temporary. She wasn't entirely sure how well things would work out, Tails' evil twin trying to be a hero out of loneliness, but her hope was that with positive role models around making him use his abilities for good, and with enough empathy being shown to him, Miles might end up realizing the error of his ways because of them and changing for the better. None of that would happen if he was rejected as a Freedom Fighter on day one because of her. So she kept quiet, hoping she wasn't being a bad friend to Sally by doing so.

" M-Miles? " a male voice suddenly said to him in shock, with the familiarity of it and French accent immediately reassuring him that he wasn't an enemy. " Antoine! " Tails said getting everyone's attention, noticing him walk into the room looking worried and concerned. After briefly being completely still, he went up to Miles in a hurry, and responded to his emotional turmoil with a concerned, " What's wrong?! Don't tell me something, _happened_ to them… " It was clear to everyone from that reaction that he knew Miles better than any of them did.

Looking awkward at first, Bunnie finally said, " Look, I know you don't like talking about your time disguised as Patch, but, I think now it'd be the best idea to, well… talk about what you've learned. " Sally, feeling she could word it better, ordered him, " What she means to say is, Miles is going to be helping us out for a while, and as someone who has spent an entire _year_ with him, you are a _valuable_ source of information. Tell us everything you know about him. "

Antoine looked over at Miles in pity, and then replied awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, " You mean, right in front of him? " knowing that he would only embarrass him even further. Miles forced out despite his voice cracking, " I've been humiliated enough! F-Fine, tell them what you know about me, but at least do it behind my back so that I don't have to hear it. I already know how _pitiful_ I am… " He said the word pitiful with scathing self-loathing and bitterness for himself, and his first sentence had him terrified afterwards that his raising his voice had landed him in hot water.

Tails had to hold back a gasp from hearing his supposedly arrogant evil twin express self-hatred like that, and said impulsively, " No you're not! Anyone would be upset from going through that! It'll be okay… " in spite of his history with him. Miles wasn't sure if he'd get used to having to be polite to Tails, someone he was still very envious of and didn't entirely respect, but he at least was already growing to appreciate his kindness.

" Thank you, " he replied reluctantly, and was unable to hold back smiling a little with his eyes closed from Tails briefly giving him a reassuring backrub. He knew he would grow very fond of that kindness from him, but he couldn't help but wonder how he earned it. He vividly remembered the last thing he had said to him as an enemy, and his smile faded. " _Please don't talk, little boy, we're trying to have an intelligent conversation._ " A tear ran down his face, and he quickly wiped it away, self-conscious as more of them started to come out.

Unable to hide from it any longer, he held back a deep sigh of regret at being reminded of how condescending and hateful he could make himself sound, looking depressed with his head hung low and subconsciously leaning closer to Tails on the couch, savoring the compassion. " _No wonder people can only sympathize with me out of pity…_ " he thought bitterly to himself. Being treated with such compassion by the " little boy " after all of that felt horribly wrong, and he was determined to make sure that treatment would become earned and deserved, which he could only do by painstakingly making it up to him.

Thinking ahead to the idea of himself being awkwardly polite to Tails, he concluded that it would be very difficult. But he had to do it, because if he started repaying his kindness with hatred, it would only make him feel worse, and he'd soon lose it and never be able to get it back. At the same time, he knew he couldn't overdo it, because the Freedom Fighters would only get suspicious at worst and weirded out at best, defeating the purpose of making it up to them because they wouldn't appreciate it at all. So all he could manage to do at the moment was mumble quietly, " I'm sorry… " to Tails as he put his arm around his evil twin.

" Okay, Antoine. We'll wait, " Sally said understandingly to Antoine, who hoped he'd be able to get away with keeping some of Miles' more humbling secrets for as long as he could. Wanting to at least help a little as he sat next to Bunnie on the armchair, he said, " Just be patient with him. He's not that bad. I'd be lying if I said he didn't hate humanity, but he, has a heart… " Everyone nodded in understanding, still stunned at everything that had happened recently.

Sally ordered Miles, " Take off your boots and shirt, they're soaking wet and need to be dried, " and he nodded and followed the order, despite a bit of difficulty removing the turtleneck. He then handed them to Bunnie who had her arms outstretched for them and left the room carrying them. As everyone else in the room continued to look at him sympathetically, Antoine reassured Miles in a quiet voice, " I know you're nervous, but the hard part is over now. You've already apologized. Now you just have to behave and everything will be fine. "

Miles sighed sadly, still wiping away tears, and said sadly with a slightly cracking voice as Bunnie returned to the living room, " I don't feel like my apology was really enough. It was just three words, it probably came off as just an afterthought. You don't know how much I've thought about it… and how hard it was for me to say it! I-I just want you to know that I'm not proud of what I did with my old gang, and what I did to you. Even back then, I didn't like looking back on it. I'm not gonna try and lie and say that I never hated humanity, even now I don't like or trust people as a whole, but that doesn't make me proud of how I wasted so much of my time lashing out at the world and following their orders just so I could have friends. I-I'm not making excuses, I just want you to better understand that I didn't really have much of a choice back then, a-and I didn't have anyone else willing to be there for me. I wouldn't still be alive if I hadn't settled for them, and that's why I can't bring myself to hate them as much as everyone else does. But just because all that isn't my fault doesn't keep me from being, regretful. "

Everyone listened to his awkward apology with worried and sometimes wary expressions. Antoine wasn't suspicious at all, and neither was Nicole, or Sonic and Tails, but the other Freedom Fighters were torn between being sympathetic to and proud of him, and being very confused and skeptical. By the end of it, Miles had broken down crying once again, and Sonic gave into temptation and hugged him on the couch, surprising everyone in the room except for Miles himself, who relaxed his shoulders at being hugged by a blue hedgehog again.

Miles was torn between staying completely silent until necessary just to be safe, and trying to say everything he wanted to say so he wouldn't be depressed at holding it inside. With a reassuring look from Tails in response to him trying to dry his tears, Miles said awkwardly with a slightly choked up voice, " S-So am I, um, going to be stuck without a shirt until it dries? Well, obviously, yes, I just mean, I don't have a change of clothes. Or anything, really. All of my belongings are back on Moebius. I-It's not a big deal to me or anything, just, never mind… " He was scared at the end of being seen as materialistic and demanding.

" What'd he own anyways, 'Twan? " Sonic asked Antoine casually, trying to lighten up the mood by acting more cheerful. Fortunately, everyone else got the hint and followed suit, trying their best to smile and act natural as Antoine explained, " Well, he had lots of CDs, mostly of the rock genre of music, and obviously a CD-Player to hear them with. He also had a violin and a violin bow. Um, let me think… Technically the castle piano was Alicia's, or more like her family's in general, but it was basically his because only he ever used it. What else was there? Nothing really. Spare clothes resembling the ones he already had, um, and he still had his old leather jacket and shades stuffed in his closet. They obviously wouldn't fit him anymore. "

Miles looked embarrassed at the end, since Antoine made it clear, or at least Miles thought he did, that the clothes Scourge gave him held sentimental value to him. He also couldn't help but be saddened by being reminded that he officially lost them, and his spiked bracelets were all he had left of his brother.

" How'd you know all that, exactly? Why'd he let you in his room? " Amy asked, Sally being a bit annoyed at her again because she was making him feel self-conscious being talked about as if he wasn't even there. Antoine answered unhappily, " I found out the first time he had a fever when I was there. I volunteered to take care of him until he got better, and so I spent a lot of time in his room watching TV as a result. Oh, right, he also had a TV, an HD one, not that it mattered because he never really watched it. "

" You don't mind that he looked in your room and stuff, do you? " Amy asked Miles, being the blunt one once again. This time, it was for the best, as Miles shook his head and answered unhappily, " He couldn't help being curious. He just wanted to get to know me better, and since he had to disguise himself as Patch, he couldn't outright ask about things he was expected to already know, so he was probably just trying to get himself better informed in any way he could. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. "

By that point, his tears had stopped at last, and he was already starting to feel better, getting used to being around the Freedom Fighters as it finally began to sink in that he wasn't unwanted there. If he really had a reason to be worried, they would've already mistreated him. He looked around the living room glancing at everyone's facial expressions just to be sure, and sure enough, none of them seemed annoyed with him or suspicious. All he had to do was keep being well-behaved, and things might turn out fine in the end.


	2. Chapter 2

Shortly after Miles had first apologized to all of the Freedom Fighters and been given permission to help them, he woke up from his rest on their base's sofa and saw Tails, who smiled at him in the living room saying, " Hey, Miles. Um… Wanna hang out? " Miles was stunned for a second, sat up and said with a nervous smile, " You were taking care of me at your island cabin for days, not even a week ago, and you didn't get enough of me? Well, good. What do you have in mind? " He still felt awkward about interacting with Tails as a friend, when he was used to him being someone he lashed out at whenever he felt like it, and now he was forbidden from doing that out of principle.

Tails replied as Miles slowly stood up from the sofa, " Well, I know you're not really interested in engineering. What do you wanna do? " asking out of curiosity for what he'd come up with. He was his former evil twin, after all. Miles was stunned for a second since it was never him who was in charge of that, and asked, " Um, well, what do people do together normally? Can we smash some robots, are there any of those around? " looking excited at the second question.

Tails looked concerned and replied, " Miles, you're exhausted. You passed out on the couch hours ago, you look like you haven't slept in days! " Miles reluctantly said, " Okay, fine, I know. " Tails asked him, " What do YOU like to do for fun? " hoping he'd understand the obvious " that's legal, " addendum that he didn't mention since it'd be awkward.

Miles thought deeply with his hand on his chin and the eyes darting back and forth at first, saying uncertainly, " Well, let's see, I, play the piano and violin. No, those are solo activities. " " I'd be open to hearing you play! I don't have to play an instrument myself- " Tails responded, only for him to interrupt nervously, " N-No, don't, I'm not used to playing in front of other people. Not since my teachers taught me. " Tails understood, thinking, " _Stage fright. Never thought my evil twin would have that_ , " and Miles continued,

" If there was an arcade in your city, I'd like to go there, but I'm not ready to go out in public and be seen by them, they'd all be asking questions constantly about me, and when I was back home, I could get away with my friends scaring everyone out of the arcade, but here, I'd have to put up with everyone staring at me the whole time I'd be there. And it's not like we're familiar with when exactly the arcade wouldn't have anyone in it but would still be open, right? I'd only go in there if no customers were there. "

Tails smiled at learning that his " mature, dignified " evil twin wasn't above enjoying the simple pleasure of arcade games, but looked sad as he learned just how much his social anxiety restrained him and kept him from enjoying life the way other people did. He replied unhappily, " I-I'll try to find out the quietest hours for that place later, but right now I don't know, and if you really don't want people to see you, they'll see you on the way there anyways. Though if you can really move as fast as you said with your wind magic, you might just look like a blur to them, but you couldn't be that fast when you wouldn't know where to go, so you'd have to slow down and let me guide you there anyways. Right now, I guess it's not feasible. What else? I'd love for you to help in the lab with me, but if you're not enthusiastic about it, there's no point. "

Miles thought about what else he did for fun, and said with his hand on his chin, " Well, I listen to music – definitely a solo activity, you might not share my taste anyways… " Then his eyes widened in realization and he finally smiled, saying looking hopeful, " We could cook! We could cook something together! Yeah, that'll be fun! I haven't cooked with someone since Antoine lived with me! It was something we did in our ' let's not and say we did ' missions, where we were sent to someone's house to, do something we disagreed with and we just warned the accused criminals to get out of town instead. Then we spent that time cooking in their kitchen. Wanna make a soufflé? "

Tails, who was glad he had something he was excited about doing with him, said with a nervous smile, " Well, I'm not that well-versed at cooking, maybe we could start small? How about we bake some cookies? " Miles looked less enthusiastic, but fortunately continued to smile and look forward to the idea, and said, " Alright, as long as I get to cook. "

As they walked to the kitchen of Freedom HQ, Miles continued, " It'll be easy, kiddo. I'll use the cooking tools, and you can hand me the ingredients! " with an excited tone completely devoid of intentional condescension with that last sentence. Tails still felt a little annoyed, but still smiled, saying in the kitchen with his arms crossed, " Come on, I can do more than that. "

Miles replied getting increasingly nervous, " I'm sure you can, but I don't want, I want to make absolutely sure it works out. I suppose I could give you the easy tasks. I'm NOT _trying_ to insult you, I promise. I just want things to turn out well, it's been forever since I cooked something and failed at it. " He briefly looked solemn and unhappy at remembering the consequences of making a failure when he was little; when he couldn't eat what he cooked to remove the evidence of using the food from people's fridges, throwing the failure in the trash ran the risk of them finding it and learning that he was hiding in their homes. That was even worse than the annoyance of having to start all over again with cooking his meal, or missing out on supper if he ruined it and didn't have time to make a decent replacement before they'd come home. He didn't let Tails know about all of that, believing that he had learned enough about his life before Scourge already and could infer it on his own anyways.

Tails understood his justification for being careful, nodding in response, and after the two had put the cookie dough in the oven, they sat down on the chairs at the kitchen table with a digital clock in front of them to make sure they wouldn't burn the cookies. There was immediately an awkward silence as they looked bored, and before Tails could suggest them watching TV, which Miles had already had enough of after days of watching it, Miles sighed with his arms crossed, and said reluctantly, " C-Can we talk? T-Tails, I… There's a lot I haven't, explained myself about. I just said I was sorry for everything, I don't feel like I fully explained myself. "

As Tails looked at him sadly and said with sympathy, " Alright, go ahead, " Antoine, Bunnie and Rotor, who had returned to Freedom HQ, started to overhear, and hid behind a wall to listen to what he was going to say. Preparing himself for a long period of talking, Miles took a deep breath, sighed, and awkwardly explained trying to sound calm and not too unhappy,

" I feel like I owe you a lot of apologies, and explanations. This isn't easy for me in the slightest. I suppose I'll start from the beginning. When I impersonated you. I had to go along with what my friends were doing, or they'd judge me for it. And I had to live with those people, it's not like I could shrug off them not respecting me. I'm not going to pretend I didn't have any enjoyment from it. Let me explain. They all decided on their own what their act of framing would be. That included me. I had to do something, so I thought back to the ways people used to mistreat ME and chose the most petty, least unforgivable thing, throwing tomatoes at someone. People did that to me when I was 4, and I even became ill from eating them afterwards. How was I supposed to know they were rotten? I just wanted someone else to know how it felt for a change. It doesn't seem fair that only I went through that. But looking back on it, I feel uncomfortable. I always did. "

He sighed and said, " I tried to enjoy it at the time, I threw as well as I could and I remembered the bullies that I had to deal with when that happened to me. I imagined I was throwing tomatoes at THEM. "

Miles looked depressed with his eyes downcast and head a little lowered, continuing, " But I had nothing against the turtle man, I didn't know if he did anything wrong. I tried to convince myself that he did a lot to deserve it, that he was an intolerant jerk who thought that my extra tail was disgusting. But I know that's not guaranteed. It never is with innocent people. He probably didn't deserve it, and I was being almost just as bad as the islanders who threw them at ME. M-M-Maybe you should tell him that for me. I would be much too awkward to even talk to him myself. " Tails nodded, agreeing, as he looked sad.

Still looking melancholic, he looked Tails in the eyes sadly and said, " And then it got you into trouble, all so we could have a fight. Logically, we could've just gone to you directly and gotten a fight right away if we wanted some excitement, but my friends were criminals. If they could cause trouble and rebel against society and get away with it, they would. The point is, you didn't deserve that, Tails. Even back then, I knew that. I don't think so, at least, it's not like you tried to kill me. I hadn't even seen you before back then. "

His eyes were downcast as he explained, " That was when we first met, and it wasn't a good first impression. You didn't get an accurate impression of who I am beyond being your enemy and an evil twin. And I never got an impression of you, either. Normally, I'd have been excited to meet another two-tailed fox, I thought maybe I could relate to you, but since we had to fight, I didn't know anything about you. You were just an enemy and I had to defend myself. " Tails looked depressed at hearing that, realizing the tragic missed opportunity at how they could've simply had a conversation back then and were forced to fight by the circumstances.

Miles continued sadly, " I feel awkward about all of that, and even after that, when I was being sent home, it left a bitter taste. I would've preferred just a talk over a pointless fight that didn't achieve anything. At least I was getting out some frustration with the fight, but I had no reason to hate you back then. I had nothing against you because I knew nothing about you to begin with. Other than that you're more of a hero. I never thought that was really a bad thing to deserve a fight from. And I'm repeating myself now, so I should move on. The point is, I'm sorry. I'm not happy about that day, " showing self-awareness briefly at the end. After a brief silence, Tails said compassionately, " It's okay, Miles. I forgave you for all that days ago. "

Miles thought, " _But I couldn't forgive myself,_ " bitter at himself, and continued with even greater reluctance speaking quickly, " And the next time I saw you was when Scourge took over my world and had my gang come to take over your base. Right away I want you to know that if I was in charge, we would've built our OWN base and focused on Robotnik as a deserving enemy, and not even considered trying to bomb your city! I don't know what Scourge was thinking, I don't think he was thinking at all! Just an idiotic stupid whim, out of spite. And I don't know why he thought I'd actually go through with it. That was actually the sixth time I got rid of a bomb instead of using it; I always get them sent into a volcano in an uninhabited island. But, well, about all that, where do I even begin? There's SO many things about that whole ordeal that I hated. "

Forcing himself to talk about it, Miles practically blurted out, " I'm sorry about how I treated Rotor! " As Rotor's eyes widened in surprise and started listening with more curiosity and sympathy, Miles continued looking sadder than ever, " I was just following orders. If it were up to me, I would've let him leave, even though he did shove me down like my bullies did last time. But at least he said, ' Sorry, ' which none of them ever did even sarcastically. That was really confusing, and it took a long time for it to sink in. Other than that, though, I never had anything against Rotor! Again, he didn't try to kill me. He went really easy on me, considering what he could've done! "

He then forced another apology out looking the most upset and stressed out of all, " A-A million ' sorrys ' to Antoine and Bunnie, there, I didn't mean what I said! I was looking away because I hated the entire experience and wanted nothing to do with it. " As Antoine smiled with his eyes sad from pity and Bunnie stared at him shocked trying to take it all in, Miles continued looking angry, " I'm glad Patch failed at what he was trying to do! And at his plan on Mobius earlier, while we're at it. I never looked at him the same way again. Antoine I could relate to! I never had anything against either of those two, she and him never tried to kill me either. "

No longer looking past him stressed out, Miles looked Tails in the eyes again sincerely and said awkwardly, " And then there was, well, everything I said to _you._ Where do I even begin? There's a lot to explain. Alright, first, the ' magical heritage ' part? I only know that because of Scourge's girlfriend Fi mentioning your uncle was a wizard. Was it your uncle? I never knew any of my family, remember. And a week before I came to Mobius-Prime, I'd discovered I could throw lightning for the first time when a bully was especially insulting to me. That's why I knew about that. I knew you could do better. And it was frustrating. Perhaps you can throw lightning too, to name just one example. " Tails asked in curiosity, " But if you could throw lightning even back then, why didn't you do that in our fight? "

Miles explained, " Well, obviously I didn't want to actually HIT a person with them, especially not that early on when I hadn't mastered it. Nowadays, I could do it because I can adjust the voltage to be safe and I did the research on what levels of voltage do what in terms of damage, now I know how to make my electricity completely harmless and just keep-we're getting sidetracked here, it doesn't matter right now. " He partly interrupted himself from the fear that if he outright told Tails he could take control of the electricity in the nervous system to control a person's body as if they were electrocuted, he'd be creeped out, and not want to be around someone who could do that to him. He planned to keep that ability of his a secret from his friends for as long as possible.

He cleared his throat and then said sadly, " Also, _I_ ' followed Sonic around ' when I was 5, too, and it was the happiest year of my life. It was before he got a girlfriend, became a teenager, and I had to join a gang and he had other friends, and he became too busy for me. But he used to be such a great friend. He took care of me when I was sick and always reassured me and told me to enjoy myself. When I was feeling uneasy about eating stuff like cookies, for example, he'd always tell me I could eat whatever I wanted if it made me happy! I always missed those days. " He felt tears in his eyes by the end, and continued with a slightly heartbroken expression,

" And for you, they never ended. You still have a Sonic who cares about you. Well, Scourge never stopped caring, just got busy, but Sonic is still trying to be a brother. I never knew just how lucky you are until I got that information from Traitor Girl. Blame her for how jealous I got of you. At least in part. Otherwise, I would've known nothing about you, and had no reason to be especially angry at you. "

He looked awkward and stammered with downcast eyes, " And that last sentence of it? That was more aimed at ME than you. It's not easy for me to admit that. I didn't know much about you as a person, your actual personality, beyond being my enemy who wanted to beat me up, who even called DIBS on it like my bullies! Some of them even had arguments over who would try to hurt me first, and I slipped away in the commotion. " He at least briefly cheered up finding the humor in that memory at the final sentence, before continuing full of shame,

" An-In any case, you couldn't have ' made me sick, ' if anything you're who I always wanted to be, because not only did your good times with Sonic never end, but you, you're a lot happier than I ever was. And that angered me. It didn't seem fair. We both should've had happy lives! I take all of that back, what I said that day! "

He continued more calmly, " I mean, I _do_ hope you start taking advantage of your magical abilities from your heritage, aside from just flying, but you're doing fine without using them. So ' ignoring ' it hasn't been the end of the world. " Miles nervously smiled as he admitted, " This is uplifting, actually, I'm, starting to enjoy this! And that LAST insult, I take that back, too, " and Tails smiled in response, glad that he was starting to calm down.

Miles apologized sadly being the most upset by the end, " I didn't really mean it, I just meant you were naïve. You don't know how horrible people can really be to people who are different. You're trusting in comparison to me. Again, I only know that because of that Fi girl. But I always knew you were intelligent. I mean, Fi had to confirm to me the extent of it, and no, she and I were never really friends, I just asked her for some information on you. But Scourge always told me that I was smarter than most children. So I knew that had to apply to my twin. I just wanted to let you know how it felt to always be treated like a kid, like Scourge did with me – albeit in an affectionate manner that was full of love and only unintentionally patronizing. " Tails couldn't help being annoyed at being reminded of how insufferable Miles was the last time he had insulted him, but he tried to be calm and forgiving because of how clear it was that he felt terrible about it.

Opening the floodgates into more of a sad rant, Miles complained, " I know I looked like I thought I was so smart, but I never really felt like I was a genius myself! Even the kind of planning skills that Scourge told me made me a genius, figuring out how to survive on my own, I never thought it was a big deal! I never had a formal education, had to teach myself with books which was hardly a normal school curriculum, Boomer only taught me about a few subjects and I don't know much of anything about the media and ' pop culture, ' common knowledge like that. Even after all the time I spent reading cookbooks, it took me _forever_ to even learn the alphabet, and I _still_ have trouble with alphabetical order! If _anything,_ I feel like the one in my gang who knew the LEAST, aside from my specific areas of interest that aren't openly practical, and most people treated me like an idiot because of it! Boomer applied his intelligence towards engineering, I didn't even apply it to plans because I wasn't in charge. Just the weather and music, that's all I'm really smart at. "

As Antoine, Bunnie, Rotor and Tails had to hold back tears at hearing about just how insecure Miles really was deep down, he added very awkwardly, " That's not even getting into the fact that you're, thinking more rationally than I am, your thoughts aren't clouded with, well, fears that aren't always rational in context. I wanted you to know how I felt for a change. But I DIDN'T think I was smarter than you, okay? I'm sorry. "

He continued looking ashamed and even bitter with himself at times, " I knew I wasn't being smart lashing out at you, or ANYONE, in the fragile situation I was in. I realized I made a mistake the second afterwards. I was trying to convince Sally I could be trusted! Not exactly the right time for being sarcastic. Both of those insults, they could've cost me the truce. I don't know why you and your allies didn't beat me up right there, " the most ashamed of all at the final sentence.

Tails put his hand on his shoulder moving his chair closer to him, holding back tears of sympathy, and Miles continued unhappily, " I was so nervous from trying to talk someone who absolutely hated me into working together for the first time that the ONLY way, I could keep my composure, and act calm, act how I was expected to act, was to plan out exactly what I'd say to Sally before I said it. I was basically speaking from a script. But every time I really felt the resentment weigh down on me from you and your friends, I lashed out. On impulse, because I knew you already hated me regardless. When you all acted apprehensive and wanted to beat me on sight like my bullies, just ASSUMING I was up to no good, and just the resentment in your tone when you responded to me, it set me off! "

Showing self-awareness again, Miles admitted, " I KNOW I'm not exactly sounding sympathetic here. I just want to explain why I said what I did. I was under a tremendous amount of pressure, I'd never convinced an enemy to do anything to help me before without being punched in the face instead. I snapped, made some stupid mistakes, and you know what, when I said I didn't want you all to hurt yourselves, I MEANT it. I didn't really want that even then. Not injured, definitely, no matter how unhappy I was at being threatened. Granted, you thought I was your enemy, of course you'd be that way approaching me. How were you supposed to know? But you have to understand, that's how I felt about it! But I was never, there was never the possibility of me, of you all getting hurt by me, okay? _I_ was the one with the ' bravado, ' I _always_ am. I was projecting if anything… "

As Sonic walked into Freedom HQ and was about to head for the kitchen, he saw them at the table, and Miles sighed deeply as Tails put his other hand on his other shoulder. He said with tears in his eyes from the last few sentences,

" It wasn't a pleasant memory. None of it was. Especially not what I did to Sonic and Scourge! I thought perhaps Sonic was just as selfish as him, I tried to believe it back then. All of my ' enjoyment ' was at getting back at SCOURGE. Sonic didn't deserve it, and even back then, I still ended up regretting it. That's why I convinced Alicia to let that portal get created so fast when I was the one who, got them in there in the first place. I was trying to undo my action. I was proud of that, at least. But after what I did last time, I-I can understand why Sonic gave me the death glare that he did, holding my tails, even if he had a good reason for trying to keep me from running for my life. I know why, but it still wasn't, a good memory, and I can't believe Sonic had any sympathy for me and let me rest in your cabin after that! "

Towards the end, the tears started to come out and his voice started to falter from just remembering making Sonic resentful of him, and the minute he said, " I'm sorry, " covering his hands with his elbows on the kitchen table, Tails gave him a hug, unable to take it anymore, and comforted him saying, " There's no hard feelings, " as he noticed a concerned Bunnie, Antoine and Rotor rushing into the room. The oven timer went off startling Miles, and alerting his attention to the other people in the room as he gasped. But to his relief, they were all just as reassuring as Tails was, as Bunnie removed the cookie dough from the oven so that it wouldn't burn.

When he saw Sonic walking up to him with his arms a little up, he let go of Miles, who jumped at the opportunity to give him a hug, trying to comfort himself the best he could and remind himself that the past was only the past. Sonic reassured him during the hug, " It's okay, I'm not mad at you anymore. You're obviously not as bad as we all thought. And I only, grabbed them, to keep you still. I hope I didn't bring up something nasty for ya. I'm not like those bullies, I promise. "

As he briefly caressed the back of his head, Bunnie said trying to smile nervously, " Apology accepted, Miles, " and Antoine said, " Exactly. I knew you weren't happy to go along with it. You were always saying you had to play the part. "

Miles sniffled and said looking at him through tears, " I saw how you looked skeptical of me at Bunnie! Why? Why didn't you trust me? We were friends for a year, didn't you know me at all? " his voice cracking. Antoine reassured him briefly caressing his head, " I'm sorry, petit frère. It's only that, I knew how you were loyal to a fault to your friends, even when they weren't the sort of people who deserved to be loyal to, so while I knew you weren't really a bad person, I thought it could go either way with you. You could've been just following orders to lead us into a trap, I didn't know. That was the only time you ever tried to convince anyone against you to help your gang like that, but you also never tried to lure someone into a trap before, you're not really the ' talking ' type. If it was going to be someone doing that, it would've been Alicia."

Antoine looked ashamed and awkward, and admitted, " I'm sorry, I, I should've vouched for you. I knew full well what you were really like and I said nothing. I just knew it could've gone either way, regardless of, your sympathizing with us. I knew you were never really against us, but you're also the type who would do almost anything for your friends, even if you'd end up regretting it afterwards. " Miles said sadly, " And I proved it with what I did to Sonic, " his voice breaking as he understood why Antoine had felt the way he did at the time. Sonic ruffled his hair and carefully let go of him as he reassured, " Water under the bridge, kiddo, I promise. That was forever ago and a lot has happened since then. I'm glad we got to know you better. "

Miles, full of bitter shame, said with his head lowered, " It should've happened YEARS earlier. I was considering going to help you since I MET you, but I was always too, reluctant, to ask. " Sonic said with a carefree smile, " Better late than never, " as the rest of the Freedom Fighters in the kitchen were pleasantly surprised at the revelation. Miles finally started to smile again, and wiped his tears looking at them. " Thanks, guys, " he said, still feeling awkward; not only about being nice to them like it was no big deal, but about speaking casually just like Tails did when that wasn't expected of him. He kept expecting to be teased for dropping the mature speech and slipping in it, but it never seemed to happen.


	3. Chapter 3

With the Freedom Fighters in Rotor's lab while Miles was passed out on the sofa, having just apologized to the Sally ordered, " Okay, Antoine, it's time. Tell us everything you know about him. " Bunnie said more reassuringly, " What she MEANS to say is, what was it like being disguised as Patch? How did Miles treat you? It might be easier to start there, " seeing Sally as being bossy. Antoine sighed, and said, " Well, okay, I'll start. But you have to promise you won't think any less of me, or not believe me. " His friends all promised him they wouldn't, with Bunnie and Sonic putting their hands to their chests, and Antoine took a deep breath, before he started to explain.

" Okay, so when I was first sent to that world, Scourge told me that if I didn't keep on the disguise, I'd lose all hope of ever coming home again. " " Because he'd kill you? " Bunnie asked him nervously. Antoine said, " No, actually. That's the thing! I THOUGHT he meant that. But as time went by, it seemed like, he wasn't that, bad. Now bear with me here, I have good reasons for thinking this. First off, if he was really as evil as I thought he was, he wouldn't have faked Patch's scar on me with a marker, he would've given me it for REAL. I thought for SURE that he'd do that, and I was terrified, but he didn't. He NEVER hurt me. Not even a minor smack. I expected Sonic's evil twin to be this unstoppable psychopath because he's so fast that no one can outrun him and he'd, get rid of them in a single blow, but while he is sadistic against his enemies, he's never killed anybody! Barely even a prank, it's like he thought taking me to Moebius was prank enough. " His friends all look wide-eyed and shocked as he explained nervously, hoping that they wouldn't accuse him of just having Stockholm syndrome,

" Occasionally, he'd tease me, about being worried, but not when I was just unhappy in general with my situation. If anything, he, felt uncomfortable about it. One time, he caught me at my worst, when I was at my most miserable, the third day I was there… "

The Freedom Fighters all looked at him in shock, with Sonic smiling eventually, as Antoine began to explain the most surprising time Scourge and him had together. When he was hiding in a closet in Alicia's castle, wiping away tears and gasping behind Scourge's jackets, he jumped at hearing a knock on the door, and Scourge opened it up, making him wonder why he bothered knocking at all. To his surprise, though, he saw through the blurry white fog of his tears that the blue hedgehog looked worried, and uncomfortable. Despite that, he was dreading on instinct what his reaction would be; this was the evil twin of Sonic the Hedgehog he was looking at, someone he was absolutely mortified to be stuck on a planet with a few days ago, and was trying to be on his best behavior to avoid setting him off. He hadn't even spoken to him since he first showed up there. Since he saw how merciless he was with beating up thugs on the streets, he had a reason to fear his temper.

" C'mon, it's not that bad, " Scourge said with a sad tone, sat down in front of him, and Antoine tensed up startled when he felt his arms embrace him in a warm hug, before he could do anything about it. " What are you doing?! " he asked without thinking as Scourge gently stroked the back of his head to calm him down. Thinking that it was a stupid question, Scourge reluctantly admitted, " T-Trying to get you to stop crying, what does it look like? "

Noticing that he wasn't squeezing him tightly in the hug, but was instead being rather gentle, Antoine asked in confusion, " Why? Don't you like my suffering? " his voice cracking, and he continued gasping, sobbing from homesickness and a desperation to get back.

Scourge answered awkwardly, still holding him close," It… you're remindin' me of Miles, okay? It's a force of habit. You're actin' like you're traumatized by all this! And I've seen firsthand how that can mess a kid up. And I don't wanna have THAT on my head. Being bullied on an island and hunted like a rat is one thing, having to live somewhere else is another. So compared to that? Not a problem! 'Sides, uh, who WOULDN'T like getting a hug? Nobody's watchin'. If I see a perfect opportunity, I take it… " Antoine remembered that Miles told him how unloving Scourge's parents were, and felt sad. So when Scourge added, " You'll feel better if you do it back, 'Twan, " he ended up hugging back.

After a brief six second hug, Scourge reluctantly let him go just to sit beside him, put one arm around him to hold him to his side, and Antoine couldn't help but feel reassured by the warmth of his shoulder as his head leaned against it, frantically wiping away tears ashamed of being caught like that. Shaking and gasping, he kept dreading Scourge insulting him, voicing the insults in his own head, but it never came. Scourge turned his head to him, looked him in the eyes and said seriously,

" If I only cared about making ya suffer, don't you think I'd just do that? Torture ya after lying that you betrayed the team? Think about it! Listen, it's NOT that bad here. Everyone treats ya decently, only mildly annoyed that you're worried all the time. You've never been hurt, or gotten in trouble, and you're even complimented on how well you beat up thugs, and not to mention swipe and pickpocket stuff, you're a NATURAL! I mean, stealing those keys without the guy noticin'? Genius! So we clearly care about 'cha. We're just not lookin' to look like total softies by admitting it constantly. You've never even been pranked. "

Antoine said in a breaking voice, " I thought being stranded here WAS a prank, " hiding his face with his hands. Scourge complained looking away in annoyance, " Yeah, and it got old FAST. It was amusing enough at first, but pretty soon I got sick and tired of your moping around. At first it was _interesting_ seeing how you reacted to Patch's lifestyle. Now it's just depressing. It's not funny anymore. As much as I want it to be. " Then he said under his breath looking uncomfortable, " T-To be honest, I feel like any minute you're gonna snap and, do something really stupid. And get yourself hurt, or worse, " worried that he was going to have a breakdown, and he did not want that happening in front of Miles.

Antoine was stunned at hearing him talk like that. Sometimes his brain mistook him for the Prime Sonic on instinct and got very confused, and hoped that it really was him. " I, t-then, w-why not just send me home? " he asked, thinking it wasn't fair. Scourge put his hand on his shoulder, which startled him but soon comforted him with its warmth, and he told him,

" I CAN'T, 'Twan. I HAD to do this. I didn't do this just to annoy you. I mean you think you're my mortal enemy or somethin', that you're always on my mind? No, why would I go out of my way to focus on you just for the sake of it? Why'd I mess with you and not Sonic? It's not just to prank you of all people, it's 'cause I needed a replacement for Patch. You were just the first to come to mind. "

Scourge seemed scared and frantic being relatable to Antoine as he explained, " Patch's been trying to _kill_ me. He even tried to ice me five times in one week! I didn't have a choice! He HAD to go! And I know what you're thinking, but if I just killed him outright, they'd FIND OUT. I'm not _stupid_ , I can still think ahead. If I got rid of him without a replacement, whether that's from icing him or putting him in a special place to torture him, the gang would figure out he went missing and blame ME for it since I'm the most likely one, and kick me out. And who KNOWS how Miles would react to all of that?! I never killed anyone before as far as I know, n-not that I'm too soft to ever even consider it. But it couldn't be as simple as just doing that to him. "

Antoine felt uneasy about someone with Sonic's voice casually talking about the idea of killing someone like it was a choice between choosing which cereal to have for breakfast. It felt like it was Sonic who was talking like that, and that was part of the whole problem he had with Scourge, that any time he acted more harshly and cruelly, he couldn't help but imagine if Sonic was like that when he was reminded of his times with him. But hearing that Scourge had actually never killed anyone before, at least on purpose, stunned Antoine, and he hoped it wasn't too good to be true.

He thought in French, " _Yes it COULD'VE been. And then I wouldn't have my reputation ruined by that monster! Who knows what he's done, who knows how many people he's hurt, all because of you, you reckless, irresponsible hedgehog! You SHOULD'VE… What's wrong with me? Am I becoming like these punks already? He's not THAT bad, he IS comforting me after all. I need to calm down._ "

Scourge continued, " Well, actually, I guess it could've. I could've killed him and THEN sent him to another zone with a replacement. I don't know why I didn't. Hell, it would've given Sonic a scare, gotten him to take me seriously finally. And now who knows what he's up to there... Well, I assume he's beating up punks like he always did, maybe he's in jail by now because that's illegal for some weird reason. " He took his hand briefly just because he could as he reassured, " So you can _relax_ , alright? Chances are, he's in prison and not hurting anyone. "

He added, " Well, anyone worth anything I mean. That's what I assume, but I… " He looked awkward letting go because Antoine didn't appreciate it, and explained awkwardly, " Look, s-sorry you're upset, OK? I didn't really think about what I did. I didn't think about what he'll _do_ when I sent him there. It was all a split-second impulse when he threatened me with that teleporter. And you know me, I'm impulsive. The opportunity was so obvious, it was too good to pass up. Get rid of the guy threatening me, that I wasn't allowed to do something about normally, and with only one catch. You. "

As Scourge pulled him close so that his head was resting against his side and chest, Antoine tried to focus on the warmth to avoid feeling too uncomfortable, trying to pretend it was Sonic and failing as he wished that a part of him didn't enjoy the compassion and affection. Scourge smiled as he complimented enthusiastically, " And you're not even that much of a catch to this! You're way better at this than I thought! You play the role like a champ, talking like a typical bad guy playing it up, when I thought all I would get from you is a refusal to do what you're told on the first mission and you'd run away like a coward! That would've solved my problem just fine, explaining why Patch would go missing from their lives. "

Scourge stopped smiling as he continued calmly and Antoine finished crying, " But who knows what'd happen to you after that, where you'd live and what the evil Sally and Rotor would do. _Don't_ think that would be the safer option, because it's not. Where're you gonna go? You got nothing else and nobody else, and Sally wouldn't accept you just up and ditching her. At least I don't think she would. They'd want revenge. This way, well… you're safer here. "

After a confused silence, Antoine said, " Fighting thugs twice my size? " hoping that his constant contradicting Scourge wouldn't make him lose his temper from losing patience with him. It never failed to be a relief to him that such a thing never happened. Scourge encouraged him, " Hey, you're not half bad at it! You knock 'em with your chain somethin' fierce, and you deck 'em pretty hard, too. Guess you have a lot of stress to work out. You take a few bruises here and there, but nothing landing you in the hospital. I kinda take back the wuss and dweeb insults! The only way you'd be one is if you kept letting this get to you. " Antoine found the second to last sentence heartwarming and wished that Sonic had ever said that to him, but was annoyed by the final sentence implying that he was being irrational.

Scourge continued, " I mean, I can understand you not wanting to bother Kintobor, but the punks in the city? Come on, the minute Sonic takes Robotnik down, you and the other heroes would have to fight guys like that all day anyways. It's no different than beating up Swatbots. Just try to see the positives of your situation, alright? I'm tired of ya mopin' around. "

With an excited smile, Scourge said to him, " If you think about it, I did you a favor! You get to loosen up, get all your repressed anger out, do whatever you always wanted to do that your old friends like Sally would never let ya, 'cause with me and my gang, you're ABOVE the law! You can take anything you like and any time you feel like you wanna punch someone, aside from one of us, you can just do it to your heart's content. You're basically invincible. Any time you ever wished you could cause some mischief, daydreamed about even the slightest prank, you can! You have the freedom to do anything you want that doesn't cross us. Think of this as a vacation! A vacation from a world constantly pestered by that egghead's rule! "

" …But you didn't do it for me… " Antoine pointed out, despite his fear, and he forced himself to continue despite the fear of being lashed out at, " Y-Y-You're just making excuses, a-AFTER the fact. To j-justify what you're doing. You don't r-really care about me, do you? It's Miles who gets all worried when I take a hit. If you really cared about me, y-you'd let me go home, you'd let me take off during a mission and let me warp home with your teleporter. "

Scourge sighed. Accepting that his affection wasn't appreciated, he reluctantly let him go, and said, " Again, Antoine, I have to keep you here. Or I'll get in a lot of hot water. Miles wouldn't react well to losing one of his best friends and the rest of the gang would all blame me, and if you acted too out of character and took off from having a conscience, for all I know they'd figure out you're not really Patch and I'll get in trouble. If you betrayed them, you might get in hot water long before you'd get a chance to warp back home. They might not believe me if I tried to have them believe you betrayed them just to try to explain away ' Patch ' leaving, and in fact, I DID TRY to have that happen to Patch and it didn't work!... As much as I'm being, well, soft on you, that's ONLY because you're not causing me all sorts of headaches like Patch did. I wouldn't put up with you inconveniencing me, especially not like that. "

Worried, Antoine asked, " Would you try to kill me? Torture me in a dungeon for the rest of my life? " and Scourge actually looked uncertain, and quickly covered it up by saying, " MILES, remember? I can't. That's the ONLY reason, obviously. He was… he would know how it… Although, ugh, okay, look, I do appreciate you on some level, because you're the person I kind of wish Patch WAS. " Antoine looked at him wide-eyed and shocked. None of his old friends ever said they appreciated him. " Not the fact that you're miserable and complaining about being here with us. In fact, I wish you _liked_ it here and enjoyed the fun. If only I could brainwash you into being happy here, " Scourge continued awkwardly. Antoine was surprised by the idea, and saw a contrast to Robotnik who would never make someone happy with brainwashing, just brainwash them to benefit him.

" I mean that while you're not exactly grade A friend material since you obviously resent me for what I did, you're still leaps and bounds and YARDS ahead of Patch. And I respect that, bud, " Scourge admitted reluctantly, smiled at the end putting his arm around him and said, " I really do, " putting his hands on his shoulders briefly with a sincere smile.

He continued as Antoine looked confused, " So I'm not about to reward your good behavior by treating you like him. That'd be stupid, you'd end up trying to ice me too, and I guarantee ya if you dared to tried to kill me, you'd be outta here! But as long as you keep it up, things are gonna be just fine. " He briefly stroked his hair like he was Miles saying, ' You'll see! " with a reassuring smile, and stopped while looking hurt because Antoine only backed away nervous and bewildered. Scourge sighed, and said, " I guess I'm only confusing you by being nice to ya. Just like Miles when we first met. So fine. I know when I'm not, wanted. But hey, I got you to stop crying, so I say it was worth it! Mission accomplished! "

Antoine felt so confused, and thought in French, " _He's the master of mixed messages. First he threatens to kill me and then he says he likes me? Who IS he? I think I might have preferred it if it was simpler and he really was pure evil. Oh who am I kidding, of course I wouldn't, I'd probably be dead by now, "_ and Scourge continued after standing up from the floor,

" And again, you're way safer here. Our Robotnik's not evil, trying to turn everyone into robots or anything. If it weren't for me, who knows what would've happened to you? You're lucky you got as far as you did, with your lack of special powers! You could've been killed! Or injured, or turned into a robot, or tortured, or put in a coma! You should be, well... " he looked irritated predicting his reaction to what he'd say and continued in frustration, " well, okay _fine_ , you're _homesick_ , you miss your normal friends, so maybe THANKING me wouldn't make much sense. I get it! But at least TRY to focus on the silver lining here and have fun with what you've got. You're making things a lot harder for yourself than it could be. Try makin' a list, doing everything you can think of that you'd enjoy, a lot of which you wouldn't get to do back home. Maybe faking enjoying it would be a good start; smiling can fool your brain into actually being happy if you do it long enough… I mean, not that I would know. Miles just told me!... And I think that could apply to you. "

He put his hand on his shoulder one last time, and told him seriously as Antoine looked guilty, " Remember, you're playing a role. Not the real thing. Don't let yourself feel too guilty for the role you got forced into by circumstance. It'll eat you up inside. " Antoine cringed a little at the image from that, and again found the courage to speak to him, feeling more encouraged to every time he didn't snap at him as he began to fear him less and less as time went on. " Then doing bad things when I don't have to will only make me feel worse. " " Define bad things, " Scourge said, rolling his eyes thinking he didn't get it, and opened the closet door, saying,

" That's subjective. You need to think more open-mindedly, because real heroes are open-minded, not quick to judge. At least that's what Miles used to say, and I'M his hero. Don't bottle it up, Antoine, you'll be a ticking time bomb if you do. And I don't want you doing anything stupid because you lose control of yourself. "

Antoine didn't want to admit that he felt like Scourge had a good point. He _was_ stressed out, and there were plenty of times when he felt like decking Sonic when he pranked him, but didn't because he was scared of the consequences. Maybe with his reputation on Moebius, he had nothing to be scared of, especially with the other members of the gang around. He didn't want to act just as bad as Patch, but something about the idea that he was in power and in control when trapped in a helpless situation was enticing. He never had that position before. It used to be Robotnik in power, but here, Scourge's gang was if anything.

After Scourge walked out of the closet, he snapped him out of his conflicted train of thought by telling him, " I'm SERIOUS, 'Twan, _don't_ get yourself _killed_. _We_ don't need that, MILES definitely doesn't need that, and neither do your friends back home. And I'm not talking about attacking too recklessly. I think you'll be fine with that. You got US around. Just, don't… get too emotional. Just be patient, okay? 'Cause eventually, I might wanna fight Sonic again, not like I'm trying to work up the nerve, just the motivation, of course. And who knows. Maybe I'll have to bring you along. " With an oddly sweet smile, he took off after the final two sentences, leaving Antoine stunned and remembering the hug he gave him earlier.

Antoine said to his confused friends in the present day, " He didn't HAVE to comfort me that one time, but he did anyway. I thought he would tease me, insult me, hit me, but not only did he not do any of that, but he gave me a hug and told me everything he could to make me feel better. He tried to have me think of it as a blessing, a vacation from my earlier troubles, and he calmly explained to me WHY he had trapped me on his planet, which he didn't bother to do earlier. Of course, it was to save his own skin, because he'd get in trouble if word got out that he got rid of Patch, and Patch was constantly trying to kill him, but the sheer fact that he didn't kill Patch outright, and reassured me when he didn't have to at all… I don't know. I think he's not as bad as he makes himself out to be. "

Sonic, Sally, Bunnie, Amy, Rotor and Tails were in various states of shock, confusion, and curiosity at what Antoine had to say, with Amy and Sonic even smiling at points, and Antoine, the whole time, was scared that they wouldn't even believe him, and would dismiss him as delusional. " And remember, you promised me you'd believe me. I don't have a reason to lie and he's not the type to embarrass himself by looking like a softie on purpose, so I don't think he'd try to manipulate someone THAT much with no reason to. He was, a complicated person. Vicious one moment, but friendly the next. It was creepy because he was, almost there, but he just wasn't Sonic, and every time he did something like punched a criminal in the gut or kicked them below the belt, or threw everyone out of the arcade, I wished he was you, Sonic, and he almost was, which is why I survived. One minute he was holding me to his side complimenting me and the next he was saying Kintobor was just a lying hypocrite. I didn't know what to think and I settled on hating him for what he did. But honestly… "

He took a deep breath since he was afraid of being judged for what he would say, and admitted, " It wasn't that bad. Of course, I hated bothering Kintobor, it's not like _I_ was _evil_ over there! But I think the fact that I came back home acting braver instead of traumatized and quitting the action from sheer stress, means a lot about my situation over there. Because Scourge was part of the reason I BECAME braver. Every single time I felt like I was pushing my luck with him, he didn't lose his temper. I just kept on contradicting him, while still staying relatively polite, and it simply annoyed him. Same goes for Miles. "

Sonic and Bunnie said, " Finally, " relieved at Antoine getting to the original point at last, and Sally, after hoping they wouldn't be seen as rude, asked, " What about him? And don't worry, we're not judging you for doing what you had to do. You're probably right. " " …Well, with Miles, the reason he made me braver was not only that I never got him to hurt me, but it's also because he gave me advice. He knows how it feels to be, you know, well coward's not really fair to HIM, I mean timid and worried is more like it. When he's scared, he acts angry and serious to cover it up and fights against the threat to lash out. He knew how I was feeling and wanted me to feel better. "

" How exactly? Did he KNOW who you were? " Sally asked in curiosity. Antoine explained nervously, " I don't think so. I let him believe I was just Patch with amnesia. He said he'd tell me everything I needed to be reminded of and keep my secret to help protect me from being taken advantage of. When it was the end of my first day, he walked into my room and asked me why I was so quiet and nervous earlier, and he was really concerned about me. So I took a huge risk, which I think I only did because he was young and reminded me of Tails. I asked him if he liked bothering Kintobor all the time, being an evil twin. And he said he didn't! "

He continued with an excited smile, " He smiled, figuring out that I didn't like doing that, and he started complaining about how pointless he felt it was and that he was only doing it to appease his friends, and he wished he could have a bigger villain to fight like Robotnik! I thought he'd just think I was being stupid, but he loved having someone he could finally relate to. The most relatable person to him before me was Scourge, and that was only because their parents hated them and they wanted to lash out… They were both lonely people, honestly, and it showed. It's why Scourge was so willing to hold me close to him on a whim, and it's why MILES was. In fact, he took every opportunity to hug me and reassure me that he could! I feel like he was my only real friend there! The only one I could open up to and be myself around. Even when I was sick, he volunteered to spend all day with me in my bed until I got better, and even covered for me when I faked it for as long as I could get away with. "

Everyone looked surprised, and Bunnie exclaimed, " I figured he had a soft side, but I didn't think it was that much! Are you sure? " Antoine said, " He'd have nothing to gain from pretending. Remember, he's not comfortable looking like a softie, either. He's, well, scared. He's worried about people reacting badly to it, not trusting him or mistreating him, thinking he's an easy target. Like they always used to… He had to be with Scourge for a reason! People, really didn't like him, and for the flimsiest of a reason, long before he had done anything to deserve it. All because he had two tails… I don't want to go into that too much. Not only would it take all day, but I think it'd be unfair to him, he's already ashamed enough of how his past has affected him, and you'll figure it all out as you spend time with him anyways and see what, gets him on edge. Is that okay with you? I'd feel awful if I just told you everything about the bullying he used to go through, especially since YOU'D feel awful. "

Sally sighed and reluctantly admitted, " Okay, fine. I suppose it's none of our business. But if he's scared of something we'll be seeing a lot, you should let me know in advance, " as everyone looked worried and sympathetic to Miles. Antoine smiled in relief, and said, " Me and Miles would go on ' let's not and say we did ' missions when we were alone together where we'd just go cooking or go to the arcade when we were supposed to do something evil instead. That's right, cooking. He was a GREAT cook! He actually taught me quite a lot about it. He could be a professional chef! If only… if only he wasn't so shy. He won't even play music in front of anyone. I hope we could help him get over that. Maybe he'd be happier here, helping us out. He certainly thought he might be when I first got to know him. " They all smiled, and held out the same hope.


End file.
